Skip to main content

New study suggests Fehmarn Belt payback close to 50 years

A study by Danish consultant Hans Schjær-Jacobsen has shown that the payback period for the proposed Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link tunnel project between Denmark and Germany will be close to 50 years. This is a decade longer than estimated by the developers of the project which focusses on a 17km immersed tunnel, the study noted. The Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link will connect the German island of Fehmarn with the Danish island of Lolland. The 17km tunnel, including two railway tunnels, two motorway tunnels and an
October 9, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
A study by Danish consultant Hans Schjær-Jacobsen has shown that the payback period for the proposed Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link tunnel project between Denmark and Germany will be close to 50 years.

This is a decade longer than estimated by the developers of the project which focusses on a 17km immersed tunnel, the study noted.

The Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link will connect the German island of Fehmarn with the Danish island of Lolland. The 17km tunnel, including two railway tunnels, two motorway tunnels and an emergency tunnel, will cross the Fehmarn Belt, or Fehmarn Strait, in the Baltic Sea.

Also, driver fees alone are unlikely to be sufficient for the financing of the link. Danish taxpayers will likely have to contribute to the project. More research is needed to pinpoint the finer details of the project whose estimated cost has been rising over the past year.

The Fehmarn Belt immersed tunnel project was approved by the Danish parliament in April 2015. It is supposed to be built, owned - apart from the German land works - and operated by a Danish state agency called Femern, a subsidiary of Sund & Bælt Holding, and financed by loans guaranteed by the Danish government.

The loans are scheduled to be amortised by income from users of the tunnel which is planned to be open at the beginning of 2022. But the project continues to face obstacles, not least obtainable large enough subsidies from the European Union, total construction costs and approval by German authorities.

Government authorities in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein recently indicated that permission for the project, will probably be given in 2017, and not in 201, as previously believed. German authorities have received about 3,100 objections to the project that has risen in cost to around €8.6 billion.

The completion of the project might therefore be delayed from 2021 to 2027.

World Highways reported in February that the Danish government was talking to contractors over the latest rise, a jump of €1.2 billion, in cost estimates for entire project. Contractors estimated an extra €295.5 million will be needed. This is in addition to a statement last November by the contracting company Femern saying that costs had risen nearly by €900 million.

Related Content

  • Denmark-Sweden’s proposed link
    July 3, 2012
    A proposal for a new bridge from Sweden to Denmark is included in the Swedish government's new infrastructure development plan for the country. The Swedish politicians would prefer a fixed link and they have invited the Danish government to examine the prospects for bridge plans. The Swedish suggestion is for a bridge link across the Sound (Øresund) between Helsingør in Denmark and Helsingborg in Sweden and Danish officials have been invited to comment. This proposal forms part of Sweden’s new infrastructur
  • How Florida paved the way for availability payments in the US
    November 21, 2014
    New financing models have been used to deliver key transport links in the US - * Patrick D Harder and Brandon J Davis Florida Department of Transportation’s (FDOT) public-private partnership (PPP) programme has made impressive progress, setting precedents for US transportation planning and funding. On March 26th 2014, FDOT opened 16km of new reversible express lanes as part of its US$1.8 billion I-595 Corridor Roadway Improvements Project. Just a few months later, on August 3rd 2014, FDOT opened twin tunnel
  • Highway developments to boost east-west transport
    April 4, 2012
    Huge highway developments are being planned and carried out to further improve East-West transport, with Central Asia a key region as Patrick Smith reports History was made in late 2010, when one of the biggest road building projects ever envisaged in Eastern Europe was given the green-light. It was the occasion when Russian president Dmitry Medvedev signed a law that would allow his country to build its segment of a huge highway around the Black Sea. The idea is to complete the 7,140km highway, wi
  • Australia: Consortium ready to abandon Melbourne’s East West Link
    March 10, 2015
    The East West Connect consortium is set to abandon Melbourne’s East West Link contract in return for a payment of between US$400 million and $535 million, according to media reports. But the Victoria state government is challenging the claim by East West Connect whose partners include Lend Lease, Acciona, Capella Capital and Bouygues. Instead, the government wants East West to payback around $153 million which the consortium allegedly received when the toll road contract was signed, reported the Herald Sun